Claudia Monge Alava

My inspiration for this piece of work was What would you do if these crackers were real pistols? This is an installation piece done by f.X Harsono he made the piece at the age of 33 the year currently being 1977. Harsono was a key figure in Indonesia's new arts movement a group which started in 1975. The movement sought and wanted change from the current government of Indonesia using his art to make a political statement against Indonesians then president’s authoritarian new order regime. When people walked into the gallery they immediately linked his work with the militarism the regime. On the installation he had a notebook where people would write there responses to the question he himself writing ‘ I wanted to shoot my teacher…’ . And times have changed however the purpose of this installation has only shifted mildly as it has always had the purpose for people to express themselves.

I was immediately inspired by the reason behind the painting and wanted to echo it in my own way. I didn’t even have to think about what I wanted to ’make a statement’ about, I knew as soon as I started from the very beginning that no matter what, I would make it about school shootings and guns in the US. I based my idea off school shootings because as a student I found it hard to believe that kids my age were experiencing such fear and traumatic events. Another of the main reasons I did this was to spread awareness ( even though the media does cover a lot ) about what was happening and one quote that inspired me and resonated with me was the following , “ the right to bear arms … does not and will never overpower the individuals life liberty and a pursuit of happiness. We cannot protect our guns before we protect our children!” — Florence Yared.

In my artwork the number I chose was 1935, the reason I chose this number was because that was the year guns were legalised in the US as I found it to be a very important date in time. For my number I used texture paste to add more dimension, I also used different shades of reds and blacks.  In the background you can see that there are abstract wavy lines of red/blue and white/grey these are an abstract representation of the American flag, the white flowers made with texture paste representing the stars. In the foreground you can see that I put a podium, a hand holding a gun and my numbers chosen.  I put the podium and the gun in the foreground to emphasise a point and to stand out. That point was that a gun is being held to a nation (the podium symbolises the nation as politicians run nations and they are associated to podiums and public speaking) I used this to make it seem more artistic. The point was that a gun was being held to a nation because not only the children and teachers were affected, family’s friends, businesses, everything was affected. Data shows that there were over 42 school shootings in the US, these children are the nations future and if this continues there might not be anyone capable to continue the nation, there might not be anyone left for education and families might break because of this.

Harsono used his installation to spread awareness of the new Indonesian regime and I'm using mine to spread awareness on school shootings and gun violence in the US.